Sanatana
Goswami (1488-1588) is the senior most of the six Goswamis of
Vrindavan and became the perfect instrument of Caitanya
Mahaprabhu to establish the science of Bhakti Yoga. The famous
Rupa Goswami, was his younger brother and considered himself to
be his servant and disciple. Jiva Goswami, the most prolific
writer and preacher of the six Goswamis was the son Anupama, the
younger brother of Sanatana Goswami.

Belonging
to the prestigious Saraswati Brahman ancestry from Karnataka,
Sanatana Goswami grew up with his five brothers and one sister in
the Jessore district of East Bengal. From the earliest age,
Sanatana Goswami was spontaneously attracted to the logic,
philosophy, rhetoric and the theistic message of the Srimad
Bhagavatam. He accepted instructions from such luminaries as
Vidya Vachaspati, Sarvabhuma Bhattacharya, Pramananda
Bhattacharya and the learned Ramabhadra. So famous was Sanatana
Goswami for his wisdom that the Emperor of Gauda Desh, Nawab
Hussein Shah forced him and Rupa Goswami to work in the court
under threat of doing harm to the local Brahmans if they refused.

Apparently
resigned to his fate, Sanatana Goswami settled in Ramakeli in
Northern Bengal. He was conferred the title of 'Sakara Malik'
(revenue officer) and given immense wealth by the delighted Shah.
So competent were the brothers in administration that the Shah
completely delegated the daily affairs to them and spend his time
trying to expand his territory. However Sanatana Goswami was
simply bidding his time, waiting for instructions from his
eternal master, Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He used his time and wealth
to help the Brahman community and prepare himself for his
eventual service to the Lord.

When
Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited Ramakeli on the pretext of going to
Vrindavan, the brothers met Him in a meeting that is often
described as pivotal in the annals of Gaudiya Vaishnava. After
receiving many instructions from Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Rupa and
Anupama were able to immediately leave for Vrindavan. However
Sanatana Goswami remained in Ramakeli, feigning illness, to wind
up his material affairs. The Nawab however became suspicious and
sent his physician who discovered that not only was Sanatana
Goswami in perfect health, but his house was full of Brahmans who
were studying and discussing Srimad Bhagavatam. The enraged Nawab
had Sanatana Goswami temporarily thrown in jail.

Sanatana
Goswami was however able to bribe his way out and make his way to
Benares to meet Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Here he remained for two
months receiving several valuable instruction from the Lord on
the science of Bhakti, after which he proceeded to Vrindavan.
When Sanatana Goswami went again to meet Caitanya Mahaprabhu in
Puri, he traveled in the most austere manner through the forests
of Jharakandha. Here he contacted some kind of skin disease which
resulted in oozing wounds all over the body.

Not
wanting to enter the holy temple of Jagannath Puri, Sanatana
Goswami stayed outside with Haridas Thakur the namacarya disciple
of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Unable to render any service to Caitanya
Mahaprabhu, Sanatana Goswami resolved to end his life. The
omniscient Caitanya Mahaprabhu however sensed this and chastised
him strongly. Finally Sanatana Goswami realized that on his own
he was totally incapable of performing any act of devotion. This
final surrender is a demonstration of the loving relationship
between the Lord and His pure devotee.

Caitanya
Mahaprabhu having imparted the most important lesson in devotion,
completely cured Sanatana Goswami, simply by His touch and
instructed him to establish temples at the birthplace of Lord
Krishna, Vrindavan. The very first temple in Vrindavan, Sri Radha
Madan-Mohan was established by Sanatana Goswami, which would
started a tradition of temple building resulting in more that
5000 temples in Vrindavan. The Deity of Madan-Mohan were first
established by Vajra, the great-grandson of Sri Krishna, but had
been lost over time.

One
night, Sanatana Goswami dreamt that a very beautiful Deity of
Krishna was being worshipped by a humble Brahman, and sure
enough, the next day while begging for alms he came across the
very same Deity being worshipped in the house of a poor Brahman
called Purushottam Chaube. Though the Brahman was first reluctant
to part with the Deity, he was later instructed in a dream and
agreed to give the Deity to Sanatana Goswami. Madan-Mohan was
initially worshipped by Sanatana Goswami in a very simple and
humble manner.

The
opulent temple of Sri Radha Madan-Mohan was built by a wealthy
merchant Krishnadas Kapoor, who had prayed to Madan-Mohan to free
his salt laden ship stuck in a sandbar. The ship was freed while
the merchant was praying, and the grateful merchant built a
magnificent temple for Madan-Mohan. The Deities were later
removed from here to Jaipur to protect Them against the
tyrannical Mogul ruler, Aurangazeb. From here, They were then
moved to Karoli where They are being worshipped to this day.
Quite appropriately, worshipping of Madan-Mohan is on the
platform of re-establishing one's forgotten relationship with the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Madan-Mohan means one who
attracts even Cupid, and this relationship is very relevant for
neophyte devotees, for attraction to Madan-Mohan nullifies all
material attractions.

This
is known as 'sambandha tattva' and from this platform only can a
devotee advance to actually establishing a relationship with
Krishna (abhideya tattva) and finally relishing the relationship
(prayojana tattva). Sanatana Goswami is credited with several
authoritative works on devotional service. Foremost is the
Hari-Bhakti-vilas (edited by Gopala Bhatta Goswami), which
describes in twenty chapters (or vilas) a detailed, scientific
analysis of progress and pitfalls in bhakti.

Another
of his work the Brihat-Bhagavatamrita, in its first part gives a
detailed description of the universes from the material to the
spiritual world. It also describes the types of bhaktis, types of
devotees and their relationships to the Lord (rasas) In the
second part it gives the glories of the spiritual world and the
process of renouncing the material world. Sanatana Goswami also
wrote a insightful commentary on the Tenth Canto of the Srimad
Bhagavatam, called the Dashama-tipani, which gives the Caitanyite
perspective on the activities of Sri Krishna and is thus
considered as the authoritative, bona-fide interpretation of the
scripture.

Ontologically
Sanatana Goswami is considered to be an incarnation of Rati or
Labanga Manjari, an intimate associate of Srimati Radharani. He
was honored by everyone and was considered to be an extension of
the transcendental body of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It is also said
that Sanatana Kumar, the jewel amongst the four Kumaras sons of
Brahma, was also present in the incarnation as Sanatana Goswami.
With his humble attitude, keen intellect and complete surrender
to the Lord, Sanatana Goswami lived, preached and left for
posterity the science of devotional service.